1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an apparatus and method for controlling the use of software and a medium for storing software.
2. Related Background Art
As a conventional method of limiting the use of software, software to be attached to a magazine has been limited in period (for example, 60 days).
Other methods of limiting the use of software are disclosed in the operation management system and the operation management method (Japanese Patent Registration No. 2810033, U.S. Pat. No. 5,943,650). According to the system and the method, the management control of the operation management system is limited by a battery storing data for use in managing the operation, and new operation management data is provided using an FD (floppy disk) when the software becomes inoperable by the operation management data of the battery. Therefore, in this method, an FD for the battery can be illegally copied. In addition, when the FD is mailed, it takes a long time (time lag) to send the FD to the destination, thereby possibly suspending the work of the user. Furthermore, there is the possibility that the FD can be lost or damaged.
Then, there are the following problem with the contents disclosed by the computer software rental method (Japanese Patent Publication No. 7-89305).
Problem with the use terminating process (When a host machine performs the use terminating process, the process cannot be performed when a communications appliance such as a modem, etc. becomes faulty, thereby charging a use rate for a non-use time. When a user machine performs the use terminating process, the process cannot be performed on the user machine side when a power failure occurs, thereby disabling the computation to be performed for a use time, hardly detecting illegal operations when a system date is processed when a reactivating process is performed after the power failure, etc. If they can be detected, a system date can be changed during the operation of an application although it is not an illegal operation (when the date is returned to 1999 Dec. 30 as an urgent countermeasure against the trouble at the start in 2000, etc.). In this case, it is not convenient if the application cannot he executed.
Therefore, it is limited to compute a use rate by controlling the use limit by the start or end of use (From To).
In the above mentioned method, since the same rates are charged for reference only and for a large number of inputs, the rate seems to be relatively high for the reference only (the accounting process cannot be performed depending on the use level).